GetndCarVC

Ever since the release of Gmail, companies that have been providing free email accounts have seen their loyal users switch services. In an effort to regain that once loyal user base, all big name email providers like Yahoo and Hotmail have increased inbox storage space to max Gmail. Yahoo however has taken it a step further by re-writing the code behind their emailing system. Currently, they call it Yahoo! Mail Beta.

If you've ever used Microsoft Outlook, then you already know what Yahoo! Mail Beta looks like. It looks exactly the same. The only difference is that Microsoft Outlook is its own program while Yahoo! Mail Beta runs inside the browser. The screen is divided into three sections. The left hand column shows inbox, outbox, trash, and any other folders manually created. The top half of the right hand column shows available emails, for example in the inbox. Once an email is selected, the bottom half of the right column displays the body of the email. This is a noble attempt on Yahoo's attempt to create something to compete with Gmail, however it has several problems.

First, loading the system is slow. It idles in a loading screen for at least 5 seconds while the necessary information is loaded. This may seem like a trivial amount of time, but after the first week of usage, it becomes an annoyance. Next, accessing email is slow. Currently, the system only loads email subjects and headers as they are needed. So if your inbox has 100 plus emails, Yahoo! Mail Beta will only load the email headers when they are viewable. As you scroll down the list of email subjects, the email server must be accessed each time to retrieve new email headings. Overall, the system is slow and needs improvements before it is truly a perfect system.

Upsides to the system is that the page is very dynamic. This means that you only have to load the Yahoo! Mail Beta page once. From that point on, everything is updated without actually updating the page. That is one major improvement over the original Yahoo! Mail. And the new Yahoo! Mail Beta has a nice look. Its silver theme and smooth graphics make for superb eye candy.

All in all, Yahoo! Mail Beta is a good first step for Yahoo, but the system clearly still needs speed improvements if it is to compete with Gmail. And despite all the negative comments, I would still rate this system as the second best available browser based emailing systems followed only by Gmail. With a little work, this system will surely exceed Gmail and once again become number one.

For small group last night, we had an off-night and decided to go to Boomers for a bit of laser tag and the batting cages. Laser tag was awesome, though I felt as if my gun was not working. But anyhow, my score at the end was zero. Batting cages on the other hand were crazy. If I did bad in laser tag, then I must have failed at the batting cages. I must have got 3 or 4 hits of 25 pitches in the first round. Utterly disgraceful. I wanted to redeem msyelf the next time around. So I ask for advice, swing the bat around a bit hoping to get the "right form."

Out of nowhere, a father and his little son asks us for extra tokens because his son wanted to hit, but the machines were closed for the night. Unfortunately, the person who had all the tokens was currently batting. But in my pocket, I was sweaty hands were gripping my one last token. The token I would use to redeem myself. Due to my selfishness, I couldn't give up the last token. Afterwards, I felt so bad. As if I should have just given it to the little boy without hesitation. This feeling stuck with me even till this morning.

So that was one incident that happened, but humans all have selfish desires. And so the question I ask myself is: Do similar occurences of selfishness occur in other aspects of my life that I might not notice right away? Now ask yourself that same question.